Reversible vegetable gel



Patented July 24, 1951 REVERSIBLE VEGETABLE GEL Arthur C. Beckel, Peoria, and Paul A. Belter, Pekin, 111., 'assignors to the United States of America as represented by the Secretary of Agriculture No Drawing. Application January. 25, 1949, Serial No. 72,735

(Granted under the act of March 3, 1883, as amended April 30, 1928; 370 0. G. 757) 1 Claim.

1 This application is made under the act of March 3, 1883, as amended by the act of April 30, 1928, and the invention herein described, if patented in any country, may be manufactured and used about 10 percent solids, that is, at least about 2 percent proteinaceous matter. This mixture is allowed to stand for a period of about from onehalf to one hour, after which the insoluble fibrous material is separated from the aqueous by or for the Government of the United States of 5 phase as by filtration or other conventional pro- America for governmental purposes throughout cedure.

the world without the payment to us of any royal- The remaining aqueous phase may be evapty thereon. orated, if desired, by conventional means, pref- This invention relates to a vegetable gel of the -erably by spray-drying, to produce a dry, solid, reversible type derived from the proteinaceous powdery gelling material. The aqueous phase itcontent of soybeans, and has among its objects self, if it contains at least 10 percent solids, and the provision of such a gel which contains appreferably should contain from 10 to 50 percent preciable proportions of alcohol and which is usesolids, or a similar water suspension of the dried ful in food preparations, such as cocktail topproduct, will form the irreversible gel upon bepings, solidified wines, cognacs, spiritous food ing heated at a temperature ranging from about novelties, and the like, and to a process for pre- 150 F. to boiling and at a pH ranging from about paring such a gel. 5.0 to 9.0.

In application Serial No. 782,941, filed October We have discovered that aqueous suspensions 29, 1947, of Letta I. De Voss, Arthur C. Beckel, .of this type, which contain from 10 to 25 percent and Paul A. Belter, now Patent No. 2,495,706, of total solids, are capable of forming a reversible January 31, 1950, there is disclosed a process of gel upon the addition thereto of alcohol, such as preparing an irreversible vegetable gel. ethanol, and including alcohol containing According to this process of De Voss et 3.1., an aqueous solutions, such as wines, cognacs, and so alcohol-extracted proteinaceous soybean residue, f th, in fl o e qu t y to produce a Solution which is substantially devoid of alcohol-soluble co inin abou from p r nt to 50 p r n matter, is prepared by treating a proteinaceous by volume of alcohol, heating this solution to a soybean material, which may be either flakes, emp rature etw en 75 C. and its ppr x m round soybeans, or soybeans comminuted in any o n p and olin the heated Solution to a other fashion, to remove the oil, such as by contemperat e o app e C- b ow ventional procedures like extraction with pe- 30 whereupon a ab l fo This el y be troleum' ether, hexane, or other similar solvents. qu fi d again by he The resulting oil-free proteinaceous soybean ma- This reversible gel may contain various flavorterial is then thoroughly contacted with alcohol, ings introduced as such or introduced with the preferably ethyl alcohol, in a concentration of alcohol. For instance, various aqueous solutions about from 50 percent to absolute alcohol, such as of alcohol containing other flavoring material, by washing, to remove alcohol-soluble matter. such as wines, cognacs, a d the like. may be used- A second method involves treating the soybean Care must be taken, of course, to take into acmaterial, in any of the forms listed above, alcount the additional water added in order that though preferably as flakes, with alcohol directly the final alcoholic range be within the range of to extract the oil and any other alcohol-soluble 40 gelling. Upon chilling to temperatures of apmatter present. A second alcohol washing is proximately 30 C. or below, a stable gel forms therefore unnecessary. which may be used as such or may be whipped In both the above procedures, the use of alcohol to form a stable whip. has the effect of removing certain constituents, The amount of alcohol, expressed with relation among which are those which act as antigelling to the volume of water, should be within the factors, and which heretofore have prevented the range of about from 30 to p r the preformation of gels from proteinaceous soybean ferred range being about from 40 percent to 50 material. percent alcohol, by volume. The alcohol may be Thereafter, the alcohol-extracted proteinaceous added directly to the aqueous extract of the alsoybean residue, now substantially devoid of al- 50 cohol-extracted proteinaceous soybean residue: cohol-soluble matter, is extracted with water to or the initial water extract may be spr y dried obtain a mixture of a proteinaceous material susandthe resulting powder bseq t redissolved pended in an aqueous solution of water-soluble in water, to which solution the alcohol may be constituents, this mixture containing at least added.

The solids in the aqueous extractsolution com- 3 prise about 50 percent protein. In higher concentrations the ratio of protein to non-protein solubles of the total solids increases slightly. At 25 percent total solids in this extract solution, the protein content will be about 16 percent.

The following example illustrates preparation of the reversible gel. An aqueous extract of the alcohol-extracted proteinaceous soybean residue, or the aqueous suspension of the spray-dried powder, prepared a described above, and containing about from to 25 percent total solids, is prepared. Sufficient alcohol is added so as to constitute about from 45 to 50 percent, by volume, of the resulting solution. The presence of more than 50 percent alcohol results in precipitation of some of the protein in the solution and should therefore be avoided. The solution is heated at a temperature between about 75 C. and its boiling point. It is not necessary to hold the temperature for any appreciable time, and a brief heating, for example, a minute or two, is suflicient. It is then cooled to room temperature or lower. 1 The reversible gel usually forms at 30 C. or slightly higher. The gel is stable at lower temperature but will become liquid if reheated, and upon recooling will gel again. Of course, if theseheating and cooling steps are repeated often enou h. the alcohol content may be lowered below the range of reversibility.

The .following example illustrates the range of alcohol content of the gels of this invention. It indicates the alcohol concentration at which the irreversible (mainly water) gel changes to the reversible gel. a

An aqueous suspension was made of soybean protein in the following mannen Hexaneextracted flakes were washed with alcohol and extracted with water. In order to achieve a relatively high concentration of the aqueous suspension for the purposes of this experiment, three separate sets of freshly washed flakes were successively extracted with the same aqueous liquid. The resulting suspension contained-about 25 percent total solids or about 16 percent protein. Varying amounts of ethanol, as the alcohol, were added to portions of this extract to make up suspensions varying from 0 to 50 percent ethanol, by volume. The suspensions were heated in a steam bath for periods of 5 to 10 minutes. The results are shown tabulated in column 4.

vpercent, by volume, of ethanol.

The transition from an irreversible gel to the reversible gel with increasing proportions of alcohol is gradual, and occurs between 30 and 40 The preferred range is about 40 to percent alcohol and 10 to 25 percent total solids in the original aqueous suspension.

This gel accommodates flavorings, seasonings, other food material, such as fruit, nuts, and the like. and may be used as the basis fora wide range of food products. It may be used with fruits and nuts or'the like to make desserts. It may be whipped with or without flavoring, the alcohol may have been added in the form of a spiritous liquor in which case a product is obtained which may be considered solidified wine, cognac, or the like.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed is: r

The process comprising extracting an alcoholextracted proteinaceous soybean residue with water to form an aqueous extract containing from about 10 to 25 percent total solids, mixing the aqueous extract with a suflicient quantity of alcohol to form a solution'cont'aining about from REFERENCES CITED The following references are ofvrecord in the' file of this patent:

B. Monaghan-Watts, Whipping Ability of Soybean Proteins, Industrial and Eng. Chem., Sept. 1937, pages 1009-1011. 

